Headteacher challenges Thame’s MP over ‘false picture’ of education funding

THE Head of a Thame school has written to local media challenging an article by John Howell MP published in a local paper, in which the MP accuses responses to the government’s spending decisions on education of being ‘unfairly critical’.

David Wybron, Head of Lord Williams’s School, wrote:

“I am writing in response to John Howell’s piece in the Thame Gazette last week. His suggestion that people like me are being unfairly critical of the government’s spending decisions for schools is worrying.

“My response and the response of other headteachers is based on the reality on the ground and the impact of those decisions. It is vital to understand the whole picture and the impact that health, social and education policies are having on school budgets. This is not a confrontational approach but an honest one.

John writes about the range of claims and counter claims and the use of conflicting data. A year ago he wrote in this paper and in his blog about the use of the House of Commons library to get at the truth. He made a number of references in his blog to reports from the Institute of Fiscal Studies including their view that, ‘the average cash terms increase in funding per pupil between 2017-18 and 2019-20 was equivalent to a real terms funding freeze before costs.’ More recently, in September 2018, the Institute, in its annual report on education spending said, ‘while total school spending per pupil has fallen by 8% between 2009-10 and 2017-18, this has mainly been driven by a 55% cut to local authority spending and services and the large cuts to Sixth Form funding. John knows that ‘The Schools’ Budget’ does not include Sixth Form funding!”

£8 million cuts to support for vulnerable pupils

“Perhaps, this gets to the heart of the matter; the huge increase in costs which schools are facing on top of the real terms cuts to the Schools’ Budget and reduced Sixth Form allocations. This week sees the end of the County Council’s consultation on implementing the new funding formula arrangements for schools over the next two years. In particular, the consultation focused on how the County Council might be dealing with the £8 million shortfall in the High Needs Block. This is money intended to support Special Educational Needs and our most vulnerable students and families. Cuts in local government expenditure hits schools. When children’s centres close it affects primary schools. At Lord Williams’s we have seen the removal of services supporting our most vulnerable students in our Autism bases and we will be spending tens of thousands of pounds accessing alternative provision for our neediest students, including transport costs.

MP’s figures ‘grossly misleading’

“I agree that it is important to have constructive debate but it is disingenuous of politicians to keep on talking of record levels of spending. This is a meaningless comment given the increase in pupil numbers and increasing costs. This could be the time to review the whole direction of government thinking on education but a starting point is to tell it as it actually is.
Unfortunately, when Nick Gibb, the Schools’ Minister spoke recently about record levels of investment in education, his figures included the amount being spent on tuition fees by parents and students and the fees being paid by parents to send their children to public schools. If that isn’t grossly misleading, I don’t know what is. It certainly isn’t entering into a spirit of honest debate!

‘False picture being presented’

“It may be that the message from the government is ‘stop complaining and get on with it’. This seemed to be Phillip Hammond’s message last week with his insulting comment about funding for the ‘little extras’. Well it’s not a ‘little extra’ to want to access appropriate mental health support and to battle for more special school places in the County. My annoyance is that a false picture is being presented on funding. Headteachers are taking a moral position because they truly care about the young people they are responsible for. I look forward to reading the report from The Commons’ Library Group. I trust its scope will be broad to address the full picture of the work schools do and that this isn’t a mechanism for delaying action to support our young people.”

David Wybron
Headteacher
November 6, 2018